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Even though I've lost 35 30 pounds and am down two dress sizes, I have still been wearing the same clothes. Especially work clothes. I'm safety pinning my work pants or adding another notch to my belt. I'm wearing the same shirts that are beginning to fall off my shoulders.
Jim has told me to go out and buy new work clothes and I've been out a few times and bought a pair of pants and a few new shirts, but I haven't been on that all-out shopping spree yet. It's not that I'm afraid I'll put the weight back on. I think it's more of a thing that I'm not done yet. I still want to lose more weight. But I think there's more to it.
You know when people lose weight and they say they still see themselves as overweight? That they're surprised to see a thinner reflection in the mirror? I think that's my thing about buying new clothes. I'm still used to shopping being a painful thing. Only being able to go to Lane Bryant to shop for clothes. Picking out a dozen things to try on and then putting them all back because none of them look good on. Buying whatever fit, regardless of it whether it's cute or not. It was exhausting and depressing and I hated doing it.
It's been such a painful experience for me in the past that I haven't embraced it yet. I still have that old image in my head of looking over racks and racks of clothes that I know won't fit, passing by the stores that have all the cute clothes because I knew they didn't carry my size. So I have to re-learn the shopping experience.
Shopping is getting easier and more fun for me. I've gone out on my lunch hour a few times just to try on clothes. I know not everything will fit well, but it is a bit of high when it does.
Not only has buying new clothes been a struggle for me, but so has letting go of the old clothes. I've always heard you should get rid of your big clothes as you lose weight but I hadn't done it until recently.
There is a consignment shop called Selective Seconds near my house. I had toyed with the idea of selling some of my outgrown clothes there. I looked up the information online to see how it worked, but four months later I still found myself putting on the same baggy tops for work. Well, as I was looking in the mirror at work a few weeks ago I said enough was enough.
My selection of large print shirts I took to Selective Seconds
I found a dozen items to take into the shop. I have to tell you, it felt really, really freeing to see all of those large print tops lined up on my bed ready to find a new home.
I stopped in the shop and it only took 10 minutes for the employee to look through my items and get me set up in their system. I walked out of the store feeling like I had just won a battle.
Selective Seconds has a web site that you can check to see if they've sold any of your items and within the first four days, four of my items had been sold for a $16 profit for me. Not bad for 10 minutes of my time. It was really exciting to check the site every day and see if any of my stuff sold.
I stopped in the shop last week to buy some things with my profits. I got a really cute purse and earrings.
While I was browsing the store I saw a few of my items I had up for sale. My purple, white and black print dress, a couple of large print tops. It was a little weird seeing them, but I was still proud that I was letting go of them and glad to know that they would be finding a new home.
